Vûllok
The legendary city of Vûllok languishes in the midst of the Karduzan Jungle. No roads lead to the crumbling gates of the city; it is reachable only by venturing through the trackless jungle or traversing mile upon mile of treacherous and often barely navigable river upstream from Tajmerak or Safrodaska. The white granite walls of the city thrust well above the roof of the jungle, making it easily visible for miles, assuming that one can get above the thick canopy. An observant traveler approaching by the river can begin catching glimpses of the city through the trees and around the bends in the river several hours out. The city is physically much larger than its population would require. Ancient buildings and ruins make up the majority of the city structures, with only a small portion of the city complex being inhabited. In the century since their homeland was destroyed and they took refuge in Vûllok, the Vwuchel, a Thy Gwud tribe, have liberated the city from the barbaric, uncivilized Nchubbesfu who had been inhabiting it, ignorant of the city’s past or potential. Most of the city is still covered in vines and trees and inhabited by the beasts of the forest, but the Vwuchel have cleared the most essential sections, such as the four terraced fortresses at the corners of the walls and the great temple that clings to the city’s terraced cliffs, and they have made significant inroads on repairing the ravages that time has wrought. Local legends regarding Vûllok say that the city was raised from the black and steaming earth in an ancient age, constructed by unknown beings of great height and singular proportions. The architecture of the city, as well as its sense of immeasurable age, lends credence to this legend. Doorways in the city are very tall and narrow. Stairs (of which there are a great many leading up and down the terraces) are very steep. While the effects of time are obvious throughout Vûllok, they are not as extensive as one would think at first glance. A building’s facade may be crumbling, and the elements may have smoothed its lines, but the structure beneath the vines is ultimately sound. The effects of wind and rain should have long since eroded the terraces of the city to a uniform concavity, but instead the edges are just starting to round and very few sections have fallen. The astrologer-priests of the Vwuchel are just beginning to delve into the mysteries of the magic buried in the depths of Vûllok. Structure The city as a whole is roughly a 4-mile-by-3-mile walled rectangle, with its long edge along the bank of the Belgaund River. There are three main gates, two that lead into the jungle and one the opens onto the river and the docks that the Thy Gwud have built. Approximately half a mile from the wall, the land and the city drop sharply into a terraced cliff several hundred feet tall. There are two main drops, giving the city three primary terraces. There are many smaller, local terraces as well, and a mansion may be built on multiple levels, as may a market or a tenement. Five structures in the city dwarf all others. On each corner of the wall stands a terraced fortress, and the great temple stands in the center of the city. The fortresses have a commanding view of both the river and the surrounding jungle. The Vwuchel have cleared out the rotted and rusted gear from the armories and shoved the ruins of ancient catapults from the walls. Their smiths are hard at work restocking the fortresses’ vast racks, while their siege-smiths fell the trees within the walls and laboriously carry them to the tops of the walls to construct their far-reaching engines of defense. In the center of the city, built directly into the terraces, is a huge domed temple. The majority of the Vwuchel's activities take place within the walls of this structure. There are no idols in this temple, nor altars of worship. Instead, there are observatories, holy maps of the stars, and ancient telescope lenses. The huge dome at the top of the temple is accessible only by traversing the warrens of the temple carved into the terrace cliffs. The route to it is closely guarded, and only the highest-ranked astrologer-priests are allowed to enter the chamber. The single door to the chamber opens midway up the wall and leads onto a narrow walkway. Once the door is closed, only the perfect, 360-degree map of the stars emblazoned upon its walls lights the spherical chamber. The chamber is affected by permanent yet ever-shifting thaumaturgical illusions in a way that the Vwuchel are just beginning to unravel. While there are many structures above the ground in Vûllok, there are just as many beneath it. The tunnels, warrens, and tombs beneath the city have not been fully explored in millennia. The Nchubbesfu that inhabited Vûllok before the Vwuchel composed ancient oral epics telling of battles with foul and fell creatures in the darkness, and they told many more tales of groups that ventured into the depths and never returned. The tunnels had become taboo for them, and few adventurers made it through the Nchubbesfu city to delve into their depths. As such, any secrets of the beings who built Vûllok are still locked deep under the earth, undisturbed. Some tales say that a few of these beings yet slumber in tombs beneath the city, preserved by strange and forgotten star magic. Others say the fitful sleep of visitors and the bizarrely folding, star-cracked vistas hung with sharp-edged spheres that haunt their dreams come directly from these builders of Vûllok. These tales, as well as their own prophecies of their rise to power within the city, are what led the group of Vwuchel to this ancient city, and what have fueled their works within it for the past century. Government Vûlloki government is theocratic, under the direction of Starpriest Pwulg Bo Mun and his council of astrologer-priests. These leaders take their direction from guides and portents in the movements of the stars and often plan important events so that they occur or conclude on cosmologically portentous times. Category:Small Cities Category:Settlements Category:Settlements in the Sabo Jungles Category:Locations Category:Locations in the Sabo Jungles Category:Locations in the Karduzan Jungle Category:Lost Cities